Modelling the fire resistance of cross‐laminated timber rib panels

Abstract

AbstractA cross‐laminated timber rib panel is a floor system comprising cross‐laminated timber plates rigidly bonded to glued‐laminated timber ‘rib’ beams. A design method was developed to estimate the fire resistance of cross‐laminated timber rib panels, based on a bending load‐carrying model. The bending load‐carrying model calculates the bending load‐carrying capacity of cross‐laminated timber rib panels based on simulated temperature distributions of numerical models. The numerical models were validated against the experimental results of full‐scale fire resistance tests. The proposed design method is based on the overall approach of the current revised draft of EN 1995‐1‐2:2004, that is, prEN 1995‐1‐2:2023, and provides conservative estimates of the bending load‐carrying capacity. The effective width is one of the most important design parameters and its influence was studied in detail. A limit value of 60% of the effective width according to prEN 1995‐1‐1:2023 is proposed as effective width in fire.